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INDEX 2 · News 4 · Opinion 5 · Lifestyle 8 · Classifi eds 10 · Sudoku 12 · Sports
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2017 | STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SINCE 1912 | VOL. 192, NO. 34
Senior
Matteo
Morelli and
the men’s
water polo
team beat UC
Santa Barbara
last weekend.
PAGE 12 DAILY TROJAN
By SHAULI BAR-ON
Assistant City Editor
The Viterbi School of
Engineering’s incoming under-graduate
class has broken stu-dent
profile records with 44 per-cent
of those admitted being
female, according to USC News.
As a whole, 38 percent of cur-rent
undergraduate Viterbi stu-dents
are female, almost double
the national average of approx-imately
19 percent, accord-ing
to the American Society for
Engineering Education.
This year’s class boasts an 8
percent increase, compared to
the 2014 numbers of Viterbi un-dergraduate
female students.
USC has previously worked
to increase women’s involve-ment
in STEM fields. In 2000,
the University received an anon-ymous
$20 million donation
for women in engineering. The
Norris Foundation has also sup-ported
women in Viterbi since
2008.
Along with the increased
number of female students,
Viterbi overall is made up of 13
percent first-generation college
students, and 24 percent are stu-dents
from underrepresented
communities.
VITERBI FEATURES
MOST FEMALE
ADMITS IN HISTORY
By BRENDA VEGA
Assistant City Editor
The Defi ning and Exploring
South Asian Issues project at
USC strives to increase the
representation of South Asian
voices on campus. In the midst
of an international humanitarian
crisis in Myanmar, as millions
of Rohingya Muslims fl ee from
persecution, the DESI project is
working to raise awareness of
similar South Asian issues through
initiatives and fundraisers.
Started in 2005, the project
serves as an initiative of the Asian
Pacifi c American Resource Center,
one of the cultural centers at USC.
The DESI project aims to provide
various programs that advocate
and foster dialogue surrounding
South Asian students and their
communities, specifi cally for
those who identify as Desi, a term
that encompasses the identity
of individuals from the Indian
subcontinent and South Asia.
“It’s important to talk about
being an American Desi,” said
Muhammad Yusuf Tarr, the
coordinator of the DESI program.
Tarr is a junior majoring in
Middle East studies who began
working with the project last
semester before developing the
current Rohingya initiative.
The mission of the DESI project
is to create a space in which to
engage students in dialogue
regarding issues pertaining to
Desi identity and its intersectional
facets, according to Tarr.
For the past year, the project has
mainly conducted documentary
screenings, book clubs, panels
and discussions, but due to the
recent crisis in Myanmar, the
organization is trying to do more.
“We wanted to host a fundraiser
and utilize my position [as DESI
coordinator] to create good,” Tarr
said.
The Rise of Rohingya
fundraiser was hosted by the DESI
project, in conjunction with the
Ansar Service Project, the Muslim
Student Union, Students for
Justice in Palestine and Students
Organize for Syria.
The Rohingya are a minority
ethnic group in Myanmar, a
primarily Buddhist state, and
have faced discriminatory policies
according to the Council on
DESI project represents
South Asian communities
The group, started in 2005,
aims to foster dialogue
around issues in South Asia.
| see DESI, page 2 |
Photo courtesy of Muhammad Tarr
United for a cause · Muhammad Tarr helped host Rise for Rohingya
with students to raise money for the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar.
By VALERIE BURGESS
Assistant City Editor
The USC Academic Culture
Assembly will continue to ex-ecute
its plans for its third an-nual
Mental Health Awareness
Month in October with eight
events, including student panels
and interactive attractions. The
MHA events will run through
the month of October.
According to the ACA, the
organization aims to initiate
important conversations that
destigmatize and explore the
intense complexity of mental
health.
Communications Director
Abigail Jackson said the assem-bly
aims to reveal how mental
health is a pervasive issue in
University culture throughout
October, even if struggles indi-viduals
face are not always vis-ible.
“With mental health, you
could see someone on the street
and not see any markers of
[mental health issues],” Jackson
said. “In a lot of ways, that could
be pretty isolating for someone
who is struggling with mental
health problems, because they
don’t see anyone else struggling
with the same thing.”
Every year, the topics and con-versations
surrounding Mental
Health Awareness Month are
centralized under a main theme.
Last year’s topic focused on self-care
and community care, while
this year, the assembly’s topic is
“Uncovering Hidden Wounds:
Recognizing and Sharing Our
Mental Health Stories.”
Jeffrey Cho, ACA’s financial
director, explained how this
year’s theme will feature current
USC students and profession-als
to discuss their own mental
health experiences and resourc-es.
“This year, we wanted to fo-cus
on highlighting student ex-periences
with their mental
health journeys,” Cho said.
For example, one of the first
events held emphasized the rec-ognition
of one’s mental wounds.
During this event, the ACA host-ed
a panel of counselors and psy-chiatrists
from the Engemann
Student Health Center to dis-cuss
specific symptoms and
coping mechanisms for differ-ent
mental illnesses, bolstering
awareness for others and them-selves.
Cho explains how the pro-gramming
intends to reach all
audiences, but it especially fo-cuses
on freshmen who may find
the resources helpful during
their first year.
“We are trying to also con-sider
the freshmen that are go-ing
through this big and kind
of scary transition of being an
adult for the first time,” Cho
said. “They should be comfort-able
tackling mental health is-sues
and owning their first year
here at USC.”
On Tuesday, the ACA will host
a panel of students who hold ex-ecutive
positions of different or-ganizations
to discuss their ex-periences
with mental health.
According to Cho, the purpose
of the event is to show how all
kinds of students struggle with
mental health and destigmatize
Mental health awareness month to focus on sharing stories
This month, the Academic
Culture Assemby will host
events to promote wellness.
| see HEALTH, page 3 |
Photo courtesy of USG Media Team
Opening up · As a part of Mental Health Awareness Month, the Academic Culture Assembly placed a chalkboard
outside of the VonKleinsmid Center where students could share their feelings regarding mental wellness.

INDEX 2 · News 4 · Opinion 5 · Lifestyle 8 · Classifi eds 10 · Sudoku 12 · Sports
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2017 | STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SINCE 1912 | VOL. 192, NO. 34
Senior
Matteo
Morelli and
the men’s
water polo
team beat UC
Santa Barbara
last weekend.
PAGE 12 DAILY TROJAN
By SHAULI BAR-ON
Assistant City Editor
The Viterbi School of
Engineering’s incoming under-graduate
class has broken stu-dent
profile records with 44 per-cent
of those admitted being
female, according to USC News.
As a whole, 38 percent of cur-rent
undergraduate Viterbi stu-dents
are female, almost double
the national average of approx-imately
19 percent, accord-ing
to the American Society for
Engineering Education.
This year’s class boasts an 8
percent increase, compared to
the 2014 numbers of Viterbi un-dergraduate
female students.
USC has previously worked
to increase women’s involve-ment
in STEM fields. In 2000,
the University received an anon-ymous
$20 million donation
for women in engineering. The
Norris Foundation has also sup-ported
women in Viterbi since
2008.
Along with the increased
number of female students,
Viterbi overall is made up of 13
percent first-generation college
students, and 24 percent are stu-dents
from underrepresented
communities.
VITERBI FEATURES
MOST FEMALE
ADMITS IN HISTORY
By BRENDA VEGA
Assistant City Editor
The Defi ning and Exploring
South Asian Issues project at
USC strives to increase the
representation of South Asian
voices on campus. In the midst
of an international humanitarian
crisis in Myanmar, as millions
of Rohingya Muslims fl ee from
persecution, the DESI project is
working to raise awareness of
similar South Asian issues through
initiatives and fundraisers.
Started in 2005, the project
serves as an initiative of the Asian
Pacifi c American Resource Center,
one of the cultural centers at USC.
The DESI project aims to provide
various programs that advocate
and foster dialogue surrounding
South Asian students and their
communities, specifi cally for
those who identify as Desi, a term
that encompasses the identity
of individuals from the Indian
subcontinent and South Asia.
“It’s important to talk about
being an American Desi,” said
Muhammad Yusuf Tarr, the
coordinator of the DESI program.
Tarr is a junior majoring in
Middle East studies who began
working with the project last
semester before developing the
current Rohingya initiative.
The mission of the DESI project
is to create a space in which to
engage students in dialogue
regarding issues pertaining to
Desi identity and its intersectional
facets, according to Tarr.
For the past year, the project has
mainly conducted documentary
screenings, book clubs, panels
and discussions, but due to the
recent crisis in Myanmar, the
organization is trying to do more.
“We wanted to host a fundraiser
and utilize my position [as DESI
coordinator] to create good,” Tarr
said.
The Rise of Rohingya
fundraiser was hosted by the DESI
project, in conjunction with the
Ansar Service Project, the Muslim
Student Union, Students for
Justice in Palestine and Students
Organize for Syria.
The Rohingya are a minority
ethnic group in Myanmar, a
primarily Buddhist state, and
have faced discriminatory policies
according to the Council on
DESI project represents
South Asian communities
The group, started in 2005,
aims to foster dialogue
around issues in South Asia.
| see DESI, page 2 |
Photo courtesy of Muhammad Tarr
United for a cause · Muhammad Tarr helped host Rise for Rohingya
with students to raise money for the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar.
By VALERIE BURGESS
Assistant City Editor
The USC Academic Culture
Assembly will continue to ex-ecute
its plans for its third an-nual
Mental Health Awareness
Month in October with eight
events, including student panels
and interactive attractions. The
MHA events will run through
the month of October.
According to the ACA, the
organization aims to initiate
important conversations that
destigmatize and explore the
intense complexity of mental
health.
Communications Director
Abigail Jackson said the assem-bly
aims to reveal how mental
health is a pervasive issue in
University culture throughout
October, even if struggles indi-viduals
face are not always vis-ible.
“With mental health, you
could see someone on the street
and not see any markers of
[mental health issues],” Jackson
said. “In a lot of ways, that could
be pretty isolating for someone
who is struggling with mental
health problems, because they
don’t see anyone else struggling
with the same thing.”
Every year, the topics and con-versations
surrounding Mental
Health Awareness Month are
centralized under a main theme.
Last year’s topic focused on self-care
and community care, while
this year, the assembly’s topic is
“Uncovering Hidden Wounds:
Recognizing and Sharing Our
Mental Health Stories.”
Jeffrey Cho, ACA’s financial
director, explained how this
year’s theme will feature current
USC students and profession-als
to discuss their own mental
health experiences and resourc-es.
“This year, we wanted to fo-cus
on highlighting student ex-periences
with their mental
health journeys,” Cho said.
For example, one of the first
events held emphasized the rec-ognition
of one’s mental wounds.
During this event, the ACA host-ed
a panel of counselors and psy-chiatrists
from the Engemann
Student Health Center to dis-cuss
specific symptoms and
coping mechanisms for differ-ent
mental illnesses, bolstering
awareness for others and them-selves.
Cho explains how the pro-gramming
intends to reach all
audiences, but it especially fo-cuses
on freshmen who may find
the resources helpful during
their first year.
“We are trying to also con-sider
the freshmen that are go-ing
through this big and kind
of scary transition of being an
adult for the first time,” Cho
said. “They should be comfort-able
tackling mental health is-sues
and owning their first year
here at USC.”
On Tuesday, the ACA will host
a panel of students who hold ex-ecutive
positions of different or-ganizations
to discuss their ex-periences
with mental health.
According to Cho, the purpose
of the event is to show how all
kinds of students struggle with
mental health and destigmatize
Mental health awareness month to focus on sharing stories
This month, the Academic
Culture Assemby will host
events to promote wellness.
| see HEALTH, page 3 |
Photo courtesy of USG Media Team
Opening up · As a part of Mental Health Awareness Month, the Academic Culture Assembly placed a chalkboard
outside of the VonKleinsmid Center where students could share their feelings regarding mental wellness.